LOS ANGELES (AP) β Stevie Wonder, Cody Simpson and Avril Lavigne will help kick off the Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles in July.
Organizers announced Thursday that the singers will be joined by actress Eva Longoria and comedian Jimmy Kimmel to kick off the games, which feature 7,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities competing in a variety of sporting events. The opening ceremony at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on July 25 will be the first time the World Games have been hosted in the United States since 1999.
The executive producers of the ceremony are the same creative team who produced opening ceremonies for the two most recent Olympics in London and Sochi.
Simpson, the band O.A.R., and two Special Olympics athletes will perform the games’ anthem, “Reach Up LA.”
